Process of manufacturing gas.



C. R. MILLER. PROCESS OP MANUFACTURING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 7, 1912.

Patend May 13, 1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

MRM.

ITNEISEB C. R. MILLER.

PROCESS 0F MANUFACTURING GAS.

APPLICATION FILED SEPT. 7, 1912.

4 SEBETBSHEET 2.

Patntea May 13,1913. v

C. R. MILLER. i PROCESS OP MANUFACTURING GAS. APPLICATION FILED SEPT.'1,' 1912.

1,061,861'.4 Patenteamay 13,1913.

4 SHEETS-SHEET 3.

C. R. MILLER. IlROCESS OF MANUFACTURING GAS. APPLIUAT'ION F'ILED sBPTJl,1912.

' wn'NsssEs mvxnrroaw Patented May 13, 1913.

4 SHBETS-SEHET 4- V process.

,county t'acturing Gas,

nnrrno s'lrarns rnrnu'r ernten.

COMMODORE R. MILLER, OF WOODLAWN BOROUGH, PENNSYLVANIA, ASSIGNOR, BY'MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, T0 SUPERIOR GAS IMPROVEMENT COMPANY, Ofi`PITTSBURGH, FENNSYLVANIA, A CORPORATION OF ARIZONA.

recense or MANUFACTURING Gas. i

To all whom it muy concern e it known that l, GoMnononn R. MIL mln. acitizen oi the United States, and residing in the borough of llloodlawn,in the ot Bearer and State of Pennsylvania, have invented or discoverednew and useful Improvements in Processes ot' Manuof which the; followingis a specification.

My invention consists in-a new and improved process of 'producing gastor illuminating und otherv purposes.

My object is to produce gas from coal and similar material, and by meansof my new process l greatly increase the percent-- age of 'valueextracted .trom the ran7 material, expedite and cheapen the operation,and obtain a combined Water and coal gas of the highest eiciency with noresulting residue or ley-products.

Generally speaking, my prooess is as tollows: in a plurality oitadjacent generating chambers contained in a common furnace l bring bedsof suit-able fuel, such as coke, to state ot'high combustion. When saidfuel beds have become incandescent, spread upon the top ot each of.the-same a-thin bed or layer ot fine or nut coal. rEhe drafts orair-blasts used to incite combustion of the coke are noi'v cut oit andall egress to aimes pliere closed. l now force dry steam -up through thecoke and coal beds in one of said generating chambers, decomposing thesteam and forming uncarbureted water gas intermingled with the lighterl'iydro-carbons et the coal released by the colcing The coking processgoing on in the' remaining generating'- chambers releases the lighterhydro-carbons which rise and mingle with the products ot combustion fromthe first mentioned generating chamber. To prevent packing and expeditecoking, l agitato the coal beds in all of the generating chambers duringthe coking process, vby means of polers, or other suitable devices. Theproducts from the generating chambers meet and intermingle in the top ofthe furnace and' are, then le'd through a highly heated retort.

Whichis located above the generating chambers, passing thence' to |aWash-box. The passage of the products through the retort is retarded bymeans of battles and said re- `tort is preferably of4 substantiallyU-shape Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May' i3, 'itl V.3.

Application filed September 7, 1312. Serial No. 719,049.

to give additional length of passage within the limited area oit thefurnace. The eiiect ot passing the products et generation through thehighly heated retort is to change the vapor-gasesinto a fixed gas, theparticles being broken up and mingled in a permanently gaseous stat-e byprolonged contact with the highly heated walls and baftlesot the retort.As the operation proceeds the heavier hydro-carbons of the coal beds arereleased, gasitied and fixed in the same manner. lhen the temperature inthe generating chamber first referred to falls below the degree requiredto decompose the steam, the steam is cut oil from said gener atingchamber and introduced into another of the generating chambers 'and theoperation repeated as above described. When the temperature of thesecond generating chamber falls belenv that required to decompose steam,the steam is cut ot therefrom and.

introduced into a third generating charnber, until all the generatingchambers have been so treated in turn. l am thus enabled to greatlvprolong the gasproduction from a. given amount oit coal over and abovethe period of production where steam int-roduced into all of thegenerating chan'ibers simultaneously and am also enabled to gasify andtix all the volatile elements ot the coal. After all the coal beds havebeen thoroughly colred and their gaseous vali 3 realized, l reopen thefurnace stack and admit forced draft to restore the coin Treds toineandescence nhereupon l recharge with coal and repeat the operationabove described.

ln the case ot small plants, l may use but' one generating chamber usingthe icl-shaped and battled retort to nx the volatile products of thecoal.

1n the accompanying is a longitudinal, vertical section ot "ny apparatustaken along the line lfd in .F Fig. 2 is a front` elevation of thesaineghig. is a section of the same. along the line lll-Hl in Fig. l;Fig. i is a horizontal section ot the saine along the line 'lV-IV in`Fig. l; Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail of the .3; Fig. 6 is an enlargeddetail illustrating -the method of introducing the steam into thecombustion cl'iamber and separa-ting the,

Water therefrom.. and Fig. T is a vertical drawings, Figure l sectionalong'the line- Vll-Vll in Fig, 2.

The following is a detailed description of the drawings: The apparatusis in the forni ot an inclosed furnace A containing a plurality oi?generating chambers, such as l, l, lb, separated by vertical partitionsQ. Q, which extend up into the upper portion ot' the furnace and 'tronifront to rear wall thereof, a large chamber l occupying the top et thetui-nace. The tops of the partitions are connected together and to theend u'alis ol' the iurnace by pairs of fiat-topped arches -q. spacedapart to torni central lines -l--l-'i and spaced from the Ifront andrear 'alla of the furnace to torni side Ylines 3l-5. i thus have tworows ot' arches in alincinent adjacent respectively to the t'ront audrear valls ot' the furnace. forming` a table upon which rests a` retortC, iln'eferably uiade ot' tire-clay, and of sulistantially a iape. Saidretort preteiably ot seuiicircular crosssection and toi-ined in twoparts or legs ti and 6, removably connected together. as at 7. The freeend of leg- 6 is open and located above the lirst generating chamber lWhile the free end of leg 6 connects with a chamber '8 :troni whichrises a stach 9 provided 'with closing valve 9a. The outer end oll`chamber S communicates with a drum lOroin which a pipe 11 leads to theWash-box lfi from which the pipe 1?, in

turn, connects with a condenser, not shown.

lit-lllrcprcsent doors in the end Wall of the furnace leading intochamber B and through which the legs (3 and 6 of the retort B may beintroduced or Withdrawn, as required. 1:

The retort C is provided with internal batlles 15"-15 which retard thepassage of the volatile eleinents through said retort thus holding themin the zone of extreme heat until tho-roughly gasilied.

A second stack 1G leads upward from the chamber B adjacent to the openend ot leg 6 ot retort C, -said stack being provided with a valve 16a toclose the saine tightly when desired.

ijf-17 represent ash-doors in the front Wall ot the furnace below thelevel of the grate-bars l8-18 of the generating chambers.

l9-19 represent @linker doors in the front and rear Walls oit thefurnace above the level of said grate-bars. and 20-20 represent chargingdoors a t ahigher le vel7 while Blf 2l represent charging platforms.

D is an air-blast main extending aiong the trout. of furnace baudconnected with the ash-pits of the various generating chambers by meansof branch-pipes 2:2 '2Q controlled by gates or valves 23-23.

it is a steam line extending along the front oi the furnace A andconnected by branch-pipes 2li-24 With the ash-pit of each of thegenerating chambers. Said branchsteam-pipes discharge at the center ofsaid ash-pits throughupturned reduced nozzles which discharge aga-instan inverted cone shaped spreader 26 suspended from the cenhall-socket Q9in which is mounted the ball 30 provided 'with a diametrical bore inwhich if', inset-ttul the packinggland 31. A poker or agitating tool 232is slidingly mounted iu said gland 3l. It is evident that the tool isthus given an extended'zone of action whereby every portion of the coalbeds may be conveniently reached and agi ated during the cokingoperation.

The operation ot' my apparatus in performing my process is as follows:The valve 9 in stack 9L 1s opened and `valve 16 in stack ll? is closed7so that the products of combustion must pass about and through theretort C in escaping to atmosphere. Coke is charged in each of thegenerating chambers l. l and lb to a little below the level ot chargingdoors 20---20 and ignited. The valves fl-23 ot airblast pipes are nowopened andthe coke beds brought to an incandescent The interior ot thefurnace, the Walls ot' chamber -B' and the Walls and balllcs of retortC' are thus brought to a high heat. The. valve 9 is now closed cuttingoilT egress to atmosphere and the valves 2-3---23 are closed cuttingoitl the lentrance of air. Fine or nut coal is now charged through doorsEOQO forming an evenly distributed bed over the surface of the coltebeds to a thickness of about two,

inches. The charging doors are now tightly closed.

the operation proceedsl the heavier hydrocarbons rise from the coal bedsand pass in the manner abov e described to the Washbox. lVhen thetemperature of the coke-bed in generating chamber 1 falls below that The.lighter hydro-carbons new be@ gin to rise as coal-gas from the coalbeds.

iis

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required to decompose the steam, the steam is cut oft from said chamberand introduced in like manner into chamber la, whence it is cut oil'When the coke bed .in chamber l becomesl chilled below the point of thedecompositioh of steam, whereupon the steam is cut oflgof. said chamberand-inthoroughly ga-sied, and fixed. `When the.

coal beds have v become thoroughly colred, I reopen the valve 9Zi ofstack 9 and turn on the air-blast to bring the coke beds back tpincandescence. `Where there isl danger of overheat-ing the burn thegases, as indicated by the 'ormation of lamp-black, I do not open thevalve 9 of stack 9 but open the valve 16a of: stack 16 permitting theheat to escape during the firing-up Without passing through the retortC. y i

By the introduction of steam successively into the Various generatingchambers, I am enabled to prolong the gas making operation until theentire gaseous Value of the raw material is realized insomuch as only afraction of the incandescent coke is chilled 'at a time, and theinterior of the*l furnace and the retort are maintained atthe hightemperature necessary to release the volatile elements ofthe rawmaterial and rasiy and fix the saine. W'ere the `'steam adinittedsimultaneously to all the geerating chambers, the coke beds would becomechilled before the complete gasification and xing of the volatileelements, resulting in quantities of 4more com plete.

ying; process expedites and: renders thesame The form and character ofretort used me isimportantfBy forming the same 11'.I the contourshowif'and p'rovid-ingthe in-T Vteruel bellies, I prolong and intensifythe treatmentof the gases and thoroughl break up and lX the volatileelements of t e raw material. 'In the case of a small plant, I mayprovide the furnace with but a. single generating' chamber to be usedinconnection With my retort.,

What I desireto claim ist` A 1. The process` of fgnenufac'turing gas,which consistsin blasting a bed of coke to iucandescence; then cuttmg'.oit the blast; thenl .charging a layer' of coal upon the coke- :sev

bed; then turning `onsteam to make Waterff gas and simultaneouslydistilling the coal? bed by passing the steam upward there through; andsimultaneously agita-ting the.

bed of coal duringtherun. y

2. The process of .manufacturing gas, which consists iin blasting toincandescence a plurality of'fadjacent, spaced coke-beds; then cuttingofi" the blast; then charging a layer of coal upon each coke-bed; thenturning on steam to make Water-gas and distilling thecoal-bedssuccessively by passing the steam 4upward through saidcoal-beds successively; and simultaneously agitating the beds of coalduring the run.

Signed at Pittsburgh, Penna., this 10th .day of June, 1912.

COMMODORE u. MILLER..

Witnesses:

W. S. VALSH, E. A. LAWRENCE.

